This is my first post on DnD beyond, so I'm not sure how to use all the hyperlinking and such - and the post is probably a bit long. If anyone would be interested in my take on improving the Medicine skill, here it is - this truly depends on your DM as to the extent of Medicine’s use - some of them have difficult to follow wording, so I’ve included simplified versions of some abilities’ healing (Pm = proficiency modifier, Mm = medicine modifier, Hd = character’s Hit die)
The following Medicine checks can be done by any character and don’t require any specific tools and could just be common on-hand supplies or forgeable/findable resources that may or may not require a skill check - however, if this seems too unrealistic, so long as you have a Healer’s kit, you may use the tools in it to do these - doing so doesn’t deplete the kit’s uses - a creature may do any of these procedures (except TLC) to themselves (so long as they are conscious) but the DC increases by 5 - additionally, if any of these Medicine checks other than Stabilize are done on a dying creature, the DC increases by 5
Stabilize - Action - Medicine DC 10 - Dying creature becomes stable - a nat 20 heals 1 hit point and removes unconsciousness
Remove Condition - Action - Roll a Medicine check; a creature can use the roll result in place of their saving throw result to attempt to remove the Poisoned/Blind/Deaf condition or a disease - if the creature gets no repeat saving throw to remove it, the Medicine check must beat the DC of the cause of the condition - this cannot be used by the same person against the same effect more than once
Quick Medical patch-up - 1 minute - Medicine DC 15 - Heal equal to a number of the creature’s Hit dice equal to the user’s Medicine modifier - a nat 20 also gives the creature an extra Hit Dice to spend next Short rest. Upon a success, the creature can't regain hit points from this ability or Medical patch-up again until it finishes a Short or Long rest +hp = Mm * Hd
Medical patch-up - 10 minutes - Medicine DC 15 - Heal equal to a number of the creature’s Hit dice equal to the user’s Medicine modifier - if the Hit dice roll below the user’s Medicine modifier, treat the roll as equal to the user’s Medicine modifier - a nat 20 also gives the creature an extra Hit Dice to spend next Short rest. Upon a success, the creature can't regain hit points from this ability or Quick Medical patch-up again until it finishes a Short or Long rest +hp = Mm * Hd (if Hd rolls lower than Mm, the roll equals Mm)
TLC - During another creature’s Short rest, you can roll a Medicine check and add healing to a number of creatures equal to your Proficiency modifier - healing equals the roll - also rolling a 20 also removes all ailments that don’t include curses (A niche-case thing I'd allow is that this can be done while gaining the benefits of a Short rest by a Warlock with the Aspect of the Moon Eldritch evocation, just cus' I like the flavor - or maybe even an Elf if you have a generous DM)
Healer’s kit - up to 10 uses - 1 use can be used to Stabilize a dying creature without the need of a medicine check
If you have proficiency in Medicine: When you use a healer's kit to Stabilize a dying creature, that creature also regains 1 hit point and removes unconsciousness
If you have expertise in Medicine: When you use a healer's kit to Stabilize a dying creature, that creature also regains hit points equal to your Medicine modifier and removes unconsciousness - you also roll a d20 - on a 10 or higher, a use of the kit isn’t depleted
To use a Healer’s kit or do Medicine checks on a creature, you must be able to interact with the creature physically - needing to be within touch range - and must be able to see the creature
Wise Healer - If you have proficiency with Medicine, this can also include the use of abilities allowing you to interact from afar, such as with Mage Hand - your DM determines if other effects apply - and you can also use this to apply ordinary healing items from a distance - so long as they aren’t magical items requiring activation.
Sagacious Healer - If you have expertise in Medicine, you don’t need to be able to see the creature you are healing and can do all Medicine checks requiring an Action as a Bonus action instead
[Remove the healer feat in flavor of the following]
Adept Healer - Feat
You gain proficiency in Medicine, if you are already proficient, you have expertise in Medicine and add double your proficiency modifier to Medicine checks
You can spend an Action and one use of a Healer's kit to tend to a creature restoring hit points equal to the user’s proficiency modifier number of d6s plus additional hit points equal to your Medicine modifier. The creature can't regain hit points from this feat again until it finishes a Short or Long rest +hp = Pm * Hd + Mm
If you have proficiency with Alchemist’s Supplies, Herbalism kit, or Poisoner’s kit, you may use the respective tools to make healing potions, herbal remedies, antidotes, or the like, without a skill check and only requiring different amounts of time based on the rarity - just as crafting rules allow - these can have the better effects of healing/curing items at half the gold cost - your DM can decide to what extent of healing items you can make, and whether you will also be required to have access to specific materials (your DM may also allow other tools to be used, such as Jewellers tools making arcane gems that can restore life, or Tinkerer’s tools making booster shots that inject healing fluid)
Even if you have no tool proficiencies, you can craft a Healer’s kit using common supplies costing 5 ep
Battle Healer - Feat
You gain proficiency in Medicine, if you are already proficient, you have expertise in Medicine and add double your proficiency modifier to Medicine checks
When you heal a creature using a Medicine check or via a Healer’s kit, that creature may use its Reaction to make an unarmed or weapon attack against a creature within its reach or range
When you hit with an unarmed or weapon attack against a creature, you may cause that creature to be unable to heal until the beginning of your next turn - you can do this a number of times equal to your Medicine modifier
If you are in the process of a Quick Medical patch-up or Medical patch-up and you roll initiative - you instantly finish, but half your Medicine modifier when determining the resultant healing +hp = Mm/2 * Hd +hp = Mm/2 * Hd (if Hd rolls lower than Mm/2, the roll equals Mm/2)
I believe most of this is balanced, as skill checks can be failed by even experts - the feats may be a bit OP - but its likely not balanced in the case of crafting healing items, as I’m unfamiliar with the process of crafting in general - but I think this really adds needed input into a skill that should really be better, as there is currently no reason to not use healing spells unless you’re just using a healing item, at least now there is some incentive to be a healer while not removing the ability to fulfil a different role, but still offering some interesting things I believe should’ve been a part of Medicine in general - however, with how different this is to vanilla DnD it could be that the Skills in general need to be revamped (and, yes, I took a bit of inspiration from Pathfinder, as I was recently introduced to it and it has an interesting progression of skills that allows you to do new abilities when you increase how proficient you are with a skill - except it does feel overly big-numbers-y, so I greatly changed it)
This is my first post on DnD beyond, so I'm not sure how to use all the hyperlinking and such - and the post is probably a bit long. If anyone would be interested in my take on improving the Medicine skill, here it is - this truly depends on your DM as to the extent of Medicine’s use - some of them have difficult to follow wording, so I’ve included simplified versions of some abilities’ healing
(Pm = proficiency modifier, Mm = medicine modifier, Hd = character’s Hit die)
The following Medicine checks can be done by any character and don’t require any specific tools and could just be common on-hand supplies or forgeable/findable resources that may or may not require a skill check - however, if this seems too unrealistic, so long as you have a Healer’s kit, you may use the tools in it to do these - doing so doesn’t deplete the kit’s uses - a creature may do any of these procedures (except TLC) to themselves (so long as they are conscious) but the DC increases by 5 - additionally, if any of these Medicine checks other than Stabilize are done on a dying creature, the DC increases by 5
Stabilize - Action - Medicine DC 10 - Dying creature becomes stable - a nat 20 heals 1 hit point and removes unconsciousness
Remove Condition - Action - Roll a Medicine check; a creature can use the roll result in place of their saving throw result to attempt to remove the Poisoned/Blind/Deaf condition or a disease - if the creature gets no repeat saving throw to remove it, the Medicine check must beat the DC of the cause of the condition - this cannot be used by the same person against the same effect more than once
Quick Medical patch-up - 1 minute - Medicine DC 15 - Heal equal to a number of the creature’s Hit dice equal to the user’s Medicine modifier - a nat 20 also gives the creature an extra Hit Dice to spend next Short rest. Upon a success, the creature can't regain hit points from this ability or Medical patch-up again until it finishes a Short or Long rest
+hp = Mm * Hd
Medical patch-up - 10 minutes - Medicine DC 15 - Heal equal to a number of the creature’s Hit dice equal to the user’s Medicine modifier - if the Hit dice roll below the user’s Medicine modifier, treat the roll as equal to the user’s Medicine modifier - a nat 20 also gives the creature an extra Hit Dice to spend next Short rest. Upon a success, the creature can't regain hit points from this ability or Quick Medical patch-up again until it finishes a Short or Long rest
+hp = Mm * Hd (if Hd rolls lower than Mm, the roll equals Mm)
TLC - During another creature’s Short rest, you can roll a Medicine check and add healing to a number of creatures equal to your Proficiency modifier - healing equals the roll - also rolling a 20 also removes all ailments that don’t include curses
(A niche-case thing I'd allow is that this can be done while gaining the benefits of a Short rest by a Warlock with the Aspect of the Moon Eldritch evocation, just cus' I like the flavor - or maybe even an Elf if you have a generous DM)
Healer’s kit - up to 10 uses - 1 use can be used to Stabilize a dying creature without the need of a medicine check
If you have proficiency in Medicine: When you use a healer's kit to Stabilize a dying creature, that creature also regains 1 hit point and removes unconsciousness
If you have expertise in Medicine: When you use a healer's kit to Stabilize a dying creature, that creature also regains hit points equal to your Medicine modifier and removes unconsciousness - you also roll a d20 - on a 10 or higher, a use of the kit isn’t depleted
To use a Healer’s kit or do Medicine checks on a creature, you must be able to interact with the creature physically - needing to be within touch range - and must be able to see the creature
Wise Healer - If you have proficiency with Medicine, this can also include the use of abilities allowing you to interact from afar, such as with Mage Hand - your DM determines if other effects apply - and you can also use this to apply ordinary healing items from a distance - so long as they aren’t magical items requiring activation.
Sagacious Healer - If you have expertise in Medicine, you don’t need to be able to see the creature you are healing and can do all Medicine checks requiring an Action as a Bonus action instead
[Remove the healer feat in flavor of the following]
Adept Healer - Feat
+hp = Pm * Hd + Mm
Battle Healer - Feat
+hp = Mm/2 * Hd
+hp = Mm/2 * Hd (if Hd rolls lower than Mm/2, the roll equals Mm/2)
I believe most of this is balanced, as skill checks can be failed by even experts - the feats may be a bit OP - but its likely not balanced in the case of crafting healing items, as I’m unfamiliar with the process of crafting in general - but I think this really adds needed input into a skill that should really be better, as there is currently no reason to not use healing spells unless you’re just using a healing item, at least now there is some incentive to be a healer while not removing the ability to fulfil a different role, but still offering some interesting things I believe should’ve been a part of Medicine in general - however, with how different this is to vanilla DnD it could be that the Skills in general need to be revamped (and, yes, I took a bit of inspiration from Pathfinder, as I was recently introduced to it and it has an interesting progression of skills that allows you to do new abilities when you increase how proficient you are with a skill - except it does feel overly big-numbers-y, so I greatly changed it)